a
place for thee between the iron kettles.'

Lemminkainen said: 'When my father Lempo comes to a house as a guest, he
is well received and given the place of honour. Why should I, his son,
be put between the pots and kettles to be covered with soot?' With these
words he walked up to the table, and taking his seat he waited to be
served.

Then Louhi said to him: 'O Lemminkainen, thou wert not invited hither,
and I feel that thou bringest sorrow with thee. All our dinner was eaten
and our beer drunk yesterday, and we have nothing left for thee.'

This made Lemminkainen very angry, and he replied: 'O toothless mistress
of Pohjola, thou hast managed thy feast very badly, for thou hast had
delicacies of every sort for the others, who gave but trifling presents,
while for me, who have sent the most of all, thou hast nothing at all
after my long journey.'

Then Louhi called up one of her meanest servants and bade her serve the
guest. And there came a little short woman, who made ready a soup out of
fish-bones and fish-heads and crusts of bread and turnip-stalks, and
brought him the worst of the servants' beer to quench his thirst with.
Lemminkainen looked into the pitchers of beer, and saw snakes and worms
and lizards floating about in them. This made him furiously angry, yet
he resolved to drink the beer at any rate, and then to punish them for
their evil treatment of him. So he drew a fish-hook out of his magic
wallet, and with it he caught all the evil creatures in the beer and
killed them with his sword, and drank the beer.

When he had done this, he turned to the host and upbraided him for his
bad treatment, and finally said that as the Pohjola folk could not treat
guests decently, perhaps he could purchase good beer at least. At this
Louhi's husband grew angry and conjured up a little lake in the floor at
Lemminkainen's feet, and bade him quench his thirst at that. But
Lemminkainen conjured up a bull with gold and silver horns, that drank
up all the water. Then Louhi's husband conjured up a wolf to devour the
bull, but Ahti called up a rabbit to draw off the wolf's attention. Next
the host conjured up a dog to eat the rabbit, but Ahti drew away the dog
by means of a squirrel that he called up by his magic. At that the host
made a golden marten to catch the squirrel, and Lemminkainen a
scarlet-coloured fox which ate the golden marten. Next the host conjured
a hen to distract the scarlet fox, and Lemminkainen made a